Painting the Cave

Perhaps you recall the original version of the logo at the top of this blog.  It was one of the better examples of my own particular artistic style, "painstaking doodle," which consists of fairly crude, sketchy drawings which never-the-less take me ages to do.

Sometimes when work is very slow, or I manage to have a quiet lunch hour for once, I'll do a little doodling at work and post it on one of the walls of my area to brighten up the otherwise squalid surroundings.  And considering these things brighten the place up, you can imagine how squalid it is...

I really did just give up on finishing
this one.  So many teeth...

I was listening to Bauhaus on the
way in to work.

The beer can was originally "LUCKY",
but I realized only "KY" showed up in
the actual picture...

This was supposed to be something else
but I'm not good at drawing people.

This was inspired by a Language Log
post.  "Balas" can mean either "bullets"
or "candy" in Brazilian Portuguese.

This is just how I felt that day.  Yes,
it is in the correct orientation.

I was reading something that mentioned
Edison's film version of Frankenstein.

Playing around with a label idea for a
beer I'll be brewing soon.

There is a story behind this.  I will not
tell you what it is.

The images are presented here in no particular order; Spy in the Cab was the first one I drew, but after that I'm not sure.  Click for much larger versions.  All pictures taken with my new digital camera, and then very clumsily cropped and rotated as necessary.

Chicken and Eggs, Maybe Some Green Onion

Am I in a better mood when I cook, or do I tend to cook when I'm in a good mood?  I can't tell.

It's Here!

The video is finally done, the pilot for our new and highly irregular series: Don't Cook This at Home.

It's up on Youtube in two parts:





Also, Blogger has been telling me I have unmoderated comments, but it won't actually show them to me - are they yours? You could try commenting to tell me, but I probably won't be able to see it!

A Phone To Save Us From Ourselves

Is it just me, or is the entire premise of the "Windows Phone" ad campaign that you're such a complete jackass that you need a phone that allows you to be a jackass more efficiently so you can get it over with? Who's checking somebody's "status" or whatever the hell you kids have these days in the middle of a baseball game, or on the dance floor?

Star Anise, Star Bright, First Beer I Drink Tonight...

I added two... Cloves? Stars? Flowers? Two units, approximately, of star anise, to the new minikeg of homebrew I carbonated a couple of days ago, and pulled the first glass tonight. I know they say two is enough for a whole batch (five gallons, versus the roughly one and a quarter gallons in the keg), but I like to go a little overboard.

Whoa boy did I overdo it this time, though. After fourty-eight hours it already tastes like there's a shot of Jagermeister in it, by the time the keg is done it'll be overwhelming.

I'm working on my next brew now (punny name to be revealed in time), even though I have an untapped keg of this one left in addition to the one in the fridge. I'm going to try to get into smaller batches for a while so that I can experiment more.

In other news the video is, possibly, done. I just need a final okay from my collaborator and then it's ready to upload.